Sources For Courses: EDINA Agcensus

Students doing Agriculture Degrees here at Aberstwyth University may find  EDINA agcensus  very useful for their studies. It provides online access to data derived from UK Agricultural Censuses. There is a wealth of information available dating back to 1969 and recently statistics have been added from the 2010 Censuses.

The Agricultural Census is conducted in June each year by the government departments dealing with Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Scotland, England and Wales (i.e. SEERAD, DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly's Department for Environment, Planning and Countryside). Each farmer declares the agricultural activity on their land via a postal questionnaire. The respective government departments collect the 150 items of data and publish information relating to farm holdings for recognised geographies.

Since the late 1990s the agricultural census in England has been conducted as a sample survey in which data is only sought from a proportion of holdings in each year. The Statistical Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government commenced with an agricultural survey (to replace the agricultural census) in 2006.

EDINA agcensus provides access to annual grid square estimates of agricultural activity at 2km, 5km and 10km levels of aggregation for the three UK territories named above from 1969.

How do I access it?

EDINA agcensus ( http://edina.ac.uk/agcensus/) can be accessed on campus when signed into the Shibboleth system on any campus PC, or off campus using VPN connection.

Go to the website and Login via UK federation

You will be prompted to enter your Aber username and password. Once in to the system you will be presented with three options.

What do people/organisations use the data for?

• To understand nature and extent of Agricultural change in Britain.
• It can also be used as a marketing tool. It allows organisations to make decisions about land use and potential. The data can be used to create a vivid picture of the farming situation.
• The data could alert people and business to the new opportunities within the sector. Those interested in estimating future activity can extrapolate from 30 years of data.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to arrange training or a refresher for online resources at Aberystwyth University, please contact:

Academic Services
acastaff@aber.ac.uk
01970 621896